Paradigm (Sequel to Rendezvous at Monteriggioni)
by Atlantima
Summary: On October 1, she found her missing boyfriend, Desmond Wilson, in a little Italian village called Monteriggioni. His family wasn't just some weird cult. It was the Assassin Brotherhood. His name wasn't Wilson. It was Miles. Tagging along with the Assassins was more fun than she'd thought it would be. But those fun times ended the night of October 10. What's going to happen now?


**Takes place immediately after the end of the modern-day _Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood_ storyline, so fair warning, there are spoilers for the end of _Brotherhood_ and will be spoilers for _Revelations_ in some later chapters.**

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><p>Alexis Chandler was lost in a haze. She had no idea how long it'd taken them to get back to the van carrying her comatose... boyfriend. Using that word to describe him sounded so wrong, after what she'd just seen.<p>

Although... she hadn't actually seen it. Because Desmond had used the Apple of Eden to... what? To stop time? To move at unimaginable speed? To erase their memories of those fateful moments? To hell with the specifics; the situation made no sense no matter which one it was.

_Do I really know this man? I thought I did, but... I only found out his real name a few days ago._

Now he was sprawled ungainly on the Animus, the dark red of dried blood on his clothes a hideous contrast against the cheery cherry of the vinyl padding. She thought back to that first night of her vacation, when she'd discovered his Hidden Blade.

_"I would never hurt you, you know that, right?"_

He'd done more than just hurt Lucy. He'd killed her. It didn't make any sense. Why would he suddenly turn against a member of his team? Had he, perhaps, lost control of his actions somehow? Was this another Bleeding Effect, triggered by touching the Apple? She couldn't find her voice to ask any of these questions out loud.

Near-constant sniffles and sobs came from Rebecca in the passenger seat. Shaun was driving; where to, Alexis didn't know or care. Meanwhile, she'd been relegated to the back of the van.

With Lucy.

And Desmond.

_"You're not frightened?" "Of you? No, never."_

She **was** frightened now. Shaun had divested him of the blade, but she still couldn't shake the possibility that at any moment he might get up out of the Animus and attack her.

_Maybe it's not too late for me to back out of all this. He said if I went with him I could never go back... but they wouldn't make me stay if I didn't want to, would they? They're supposed to be the good guys, they wouldn't keep me prisoner, would they?_

The van slowed, and then Shaun backed up and parked it somewhere. Alexis wanted to ask him what was going to happen now, to ask him if she could leave, if he could take her to the airport, but couldn't muster the ability to do anything besides look blearily up at him. As he got out of the van, all he said was, "Right, now you all stay quiet for a bit."

Shaun walked off. Soon there was a loud doorbell ringing very close by. It rang again after a minute, and then a third time, more insistently. From somewhere above them Alexis heard an irritated woman shouting.

"Non si può leggere?! Apriamo alle otto!"

The next words she heard were also Italian, but in a familiar British accent. "Allora, io sono Otto! Cerco mio fratello!"

"Vattene, smargiasso!" The first speaker had become even more annoyed.

"Ci danno tregua! Abbiamo guidato diciassette miglia per arrivare qui!"

"Non mi interessa!"

"Dissi **diciassette**! **miglia**!" Shaun angrily re-enunciated two words from his previous sentence. There was no immediate reply. He groaned in frustration. "Stiamo cercando per nostro **fratello**!"

A window opened somewhere. "Aspetta, diciassette... Che cavolo, stai serio?"

"Sì, sì!"

"Solo tu?"

"No. Venite alla porta di consegna."

Now the woman groaned as the window was closed again. Alexis hadn't followed most of that. _Something about a brother... looking for someone's brother... yes, Shaun was serious... "only you?"_ Before she could puzzle much longer over the significance of the exchange, Shaun had returned. He backed up the van a short distance and then-

"Alex, open the back doors." She did as he asked. As she opened them she saw that the van was now inside some sort of garage. She saw a frazzled-looking woman, presumably the one Shaun had just spoken with.

The stranger's eyes alighted on Lucy's lifeless and bloody form. "Che cavolo? Non vi nascondo cadaveri!"

"Non vi stiamo chiedendo di," Shaun told her.

"E che cosa è questo?" She pointed to the Animus.

The reply was instant and firm. "Questo è niente. Hai visto niente. Capisce?"

_"You saw nothing. Got it?"_ Alexis understood that part, at least. "What's going on?" she finally managed to ask.

"This is our rendezvous point."

"So, she's-"

He cut her off. "You're still meant to be keeping quiet."

"Chi è questo fratello che state cercando, esattamente?"

"Non importa. Lui sa dove noi incontrerà," Shaun replied, and then gestured to Rebecca and Alexis that they could get out from the van.

"Dovrebbe non portare alcun disturbi con lui! Voi Assassini siete abbastanza guai," the woman fumed. "Se maledetti Templari bussare alla mia porta, ti darò a loro piuttosto che avere il mio negozio saccheggiato!"

Alexis didn't need to know Italian to get that the woman was far from happy to have them there.

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><p>The woman, it turned out, was one Vanessa Lombardi. Contrary to what Alexis had assumed, Vanessa wasn't actually an Assassin herself, though most of her mother's family, the Santorinis, had been Assassins since the early twentieth century.<p>

Shaun went on and on about the history of the little flower shop they were now hiding out in the basement of. "You see, this place used to be a full-fledged den, a major base of operations for the Italian Assassins. It all started round about 1910 or so, with an interesting chap by the name of Vincenzo. Now, I can't be sure on a lot of the details, as most of these events were 'off the books and under the table', as befits the Brotherhood, and much of the records that were kept got purged by the Order, what with their fondness for erasing and rewriting history," Shaun only paused briefly for the necessity of taking a breath, "but from what I've been able to piece together..."

Alexis, now feeling a bit ill at ease about the whole concept of Assassins, tuned him out. She poked mournfully at her bowl of bland pasta, going over the events of the past few days. Things had been getting crazy, sure, the more Desmond and his pals revealed to her, the crazier. Especially since she'd found out that the fate of the world rested on their ragtag team. But they'd still been able to stay lighthearted and joke about it.

But now... Now there were no more jokes. Now one of them was dead. And they didn't even know why.

"...legendary healing capabilities," Shaun was saying. "And it's even mentioned in some of da Vinci's writings, can you believe that?"

Rebecca finally snapped. "Just shut the fuck up already! We're not in the mood for your stupid history lesson! Did you forget Lucy's **dead**?"

Shaun glared at her. "No, Rebecca. No, I didn't. I was trying to keep my mind off the subject, thank you very much."

Rebecca glared back, gears churning in her brain in an attempt to think up a suitably biting retort.

"Wha- what do we do now?" Alexis stuttered. She'd wanted to ask this for hours, but had only managed just now to produce the words.

"We wait for our glorious leader," Shaun said snidely. "Maybe he'll have some idea what the fuck's got into Desmond's head."

"Des..." She couldn't bring herself to say his name. "What's going to happen with him?"

"Don't ask me, ask Miss Merciful here." Shaun pointed a critical finger at Rebecca. "She's the one who said we should put him back in the Animus."

"Well what other option was there? Just leave him in the church to die?"

"Sounds fine and dandy to me!"

"Our mission was to rescue him, fuckface!" Rebecca snarled.

"Yeah, and we've bloody well done that! Or no, actually, Lucy's done that!" Shaun shot back. "And look how he's repaid her kindness!"

"We don't know he did that on purpose!"

"Oh, it's okay if he didn't, eh? It's okay to keep him around if he's a mindless killing machine programmed just like Cross was?!"

Rebecca slammed her palms down on the table. "Wait until Bill gets here at least!"

Shaun let out an exhalation of breath that sounded more like a growl. "...Fine. We'll hang onto him for now. I'm not going to be happy about it, though."

"Nobody's happy about this, Shaun." Rebecca cradled her face in her hands. "Nobody," she repeated, her voice cracking. Then she dissolved into tears again.


End file.
